The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Sunday, November 30, 2014

I was reading Matthew Bell's blog, "Keystone Kops" today, enjoying his extension of the linkages made to the Gateway Arch and Ferguson's police-related items.

Darren Wilson's Widow's Peak

Looking at Darren Wilson's photo there, one I've seen often before during November, I noticed for the first time something intriguing about Darren Wilson. The famous/infamous police officer has an incredibly accentuated "widow's peak," especially emphasized with his reclining hairline. Some names for the "widow's peak" link back to a mourning cap or "Mary Stuart Cap."

Widow's peaks are a symptom of Donnai-Barrow syndrome, a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the LRP2 gene. Could Darren Wilson have some minor problems with his eyesight or hearing?

A widow's peak is a V-shaped point in the hairline in the center of the forehead....The term stems from the belief that hair growing to a point on the forehead – suggestive of the peak of a widow's hood – is an omen of early widowhood. The use of peak in relation to hair dates from 1833. The expression widow's peak dates from 1849. Source.

Darren Wilson is shown here as a sophomore in the

2002 St. Charles West High School yearbook.

Darren Wilson, 2014.

Darren is of Irish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Darren is "great."

Wilson is derived from a Viking settlers' name arriving in Scotland in the medieval era. The name Wilson is from the personal name William. The name Wilson literally issues from the patronymic expression "son of William" or "son of Wil." William means "helmet."

Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer (now retired) is neither a widow (yet) or a widow's son, as far as any information discovered to date has revealed. What Wilson does appear to have been is the son who has experienced his mother's mysterious death, when he was 16 years old.

His mother, Tonya Durso, allegedly was a woman described as a "serial con artist who defrauded thousands of dollars from neighbors in stolen credit card scheme."

Wilson was born in Texas in 1986 to Tonya and John Wilson, and he had a sister, Kara. His parents divorced in 1989, when he was 2 or 3 years old. His mother then married Tyler Harris, and they lived in Elgin, Tex., for a time, records show. Tyler and Tonya Harris had a child named Jared. The family later moved to the suburban Missouri town of St. Peters, where Wilson’s mother again got divorced and married a man named Dan Durso, records indicate.

Was Darren Wilson a metaphorical "widow's son"?

In 2001, Wilson's mother pleaded guilty to six counts of forgery and one count of stealing at the 11th Judicial Court in St Louis. She did not serve any time in jail and went into bankruptcy in October 2002. The following month she died.

Widow's Peak, Widow's Son

One of the Masonic signs of distress is the holding up of your arms, a gesture that has been often discussed in the Michael Brown shooting. Did Brown have his arms up? Down? To the side? How? Clearly, the universal sign of surrender and distress is with the hands and arms up.

A specialized verbal distress signal is "Oh Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow's son?"

Some speculate that the Mormon leader's Joseph Smith's final words, "O Lord, my God!" was a cry for help, in the Freemasonry tradition, at the Carthage jail, as he was being shot.

Those who knew Joseph Smith believed that his use of the phrase "O Lord, my God!" was an attempt to save his life and the life of his friends by calling out to Freemasons in the mob. (Joseph and the other Mormons in the jail were Masons, Joseph himself having been inducted on 15 March 1842.)
Among the brotherhood of Freemasons, there is the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress: "Oh Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow's son?" According to Masonic code, any Mason who hears another Mason utter the Grand Hailing Sign must come to his aid.
Most adult men in Hancock County, Illinois, were Masons, and there were Masons in the mob that attacked the jail. If Joseph was attempting to give the Grand Hailing Sign, they would have been obligated to stop their attack and defend Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Willard Richards. Source.

What is the Widow's Son?

In Ancient Craft Masonry, the title applied to Hiram, the architect of the Temple, because he is said, in the first Book of Kings (vu, 14) to have been "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali." The Adonhiramite Freemasons have a tradition which Chapron gives (Nécessaire Maçonnique, page 101) in the following words: "The Freemasons call themselves the widow's sons, because, after the death of our respectable Master, the Freemasons took care of his mother, whose children they called themselves, because Adonhiram had always considered them as his Brethren. But the French Freemasons subsequently changed the myth and called themselves Sons of the Widow, and for this reason.
'As the wife of Hiram remained a widow after her husband was murdered, the Freemasons, who regard themselves as the descendants of Hiram, called themselves Sons of the Widow."' But this myth is a pure invention, and is without the Scriptural foundation of the York myth, which makes Hiram himself the widow's son. But in French Freemasonry the term Son of the Widow is synonymous with Freemason.
The claim has often been made that the adherents of the exiled House of Stuart, seeking to organize a system of political Freemasonry by which they hoped to secure the restoration of the family to the throne of England, transferred to Charles II the tradition of Hiram Abif betrayed by his followers, and called him the Widow's Son, because he was the son of Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles I. For the same reason they presumably subsequently applied the phrase to his brother, James II. - Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

The widow's peak, a/k/a "Mary Stuart Cap," and widow's sons, linked to the House of Stuart, gives one pause about the role of Freemasonry in the background, symbolically, of Ferguson's melodrama - one of distress and death.

Before his attack, McQuilliams changed his last public individual Facebook profile photo to the following:

It is the Hierophant Tarot card (h/t SMiles). Following is the complete view.

The Hierophant (V), in some decks named The Pope, is the fifth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.
...
In many modern packs, the Hierophant is represented with his right hand raised in what is known esoterically as the blessing or benediction, with two fingers pointing skyward and two pointing down, thus forming a bridge between Heaven and Earth reminiscent of that formed by the body of The Hanged Man. The Hierophant is thus a true “pontiff”, in that he is the builder of the bridge between deity and humanity.
...
In most iconographic depictions, the Hierophant is seen seated on a throne between two pillars symbolizing Law and Liberty or obedience and disobedience, according to different interpretations. He wears a triple crown, and the keys to Heaven are at his feet. Sometimes he is shown with worshippers, as his alternate title is the Pope or, sometimes, Jupiter.
...
Some interpretations also suggest a link between the card and the myth of Isis and Osiris, a claim made about many cards. Source.

There is a long tradition of leaving "calling cards" of various types at crime scenes.

One of the most significant examples in history is those left by Jack the Ripper, which were wrongly interpreted as being Jewish in origin, when, in fact, they were Masonic.

Jack the Ripper is believed to have left two calling cards by Goulston Street, London on September 30, 1888, the night he murdered Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes: a scrap of Eddowes' apron and some graffiti reading Juwes are the men That Will not be Blamed for nothing. Source.

First off, the actual location of the killings, near or in Mitre Square is important, Freemasonically.

Also, in one widely disseminated theory:

Author Stephen Knight suggested that "Juwes" referred not to "Jews," but to Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, the three killers of Hiram Abiff, a semi-legendary figure in Freemasonry, and furthermore, that the message was written by the killer (or killers) as part of a Masonic plot. There is no evidence that anyone prior to Knight had ever referred to those three figures by the term "Juwes". Knight's suggestion was used in fictional treatments of the murders, such as the film Murder by Decree, and the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Source.

In terms of the Beltway Sniper mystery, Tarot cards were used to leave messages.

John Muhammad and Lee Malvo, the so-called "Beltway Snipers," engaged in 23 days of random attacks in the Washington, D.C, area, in October 2002. Muhammad used a Bushmaster .223 rifle.

On October 7, 2002, at 8:09 a.m., Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy, was shot in the abdomen and critically wounded as he arrived at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School at 4901 Collington Road in Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George's County (Brown's name was concealed from the public but was later revealed). His aunt, a nurse who had just brought him to school, rushed him to a hospital emergency room. Despite serious injuries, including damage to several major organs, Brown survived the attack and ultimately testified at Muhammad's trial. At this crime scene the authorities discovered a shell casing as well as a Tarot card (the Death card) inscribed with the phrase, "Call me God" on the front and, on three separate lines on the back, "For you Mr. Police." "Code: 'Call me God'. Do not release to the press."
...
Allegedly, at several scenes Tarot cards were left as calling cards, including one Death card upon which was written "Call me God" on the front and on the back on three separate lines the words, "For you mr. Police." "Code: 'Call me God'." "Do not release to the press." This information was leaked to the press and misquoted often as "I am God" or some similar misquote of the actual words on the tarot card. Source.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Neptune/Poseidon, symbolized by tridents, was the ruler of the seas and associated locations, but also, surprisingly, of horses.

A new violent situation ended when a "veteran Austin police officer putting away horses for the night was able to stop a gunman rampaging through the city's downtown early Friday — ending the suspect's 10 minutes of terror before anyone was hurt." Source.

An individual fired at three targeted downtown Austin, Texas public buildings -- the Austin Federal Courthouse, the Consulado General De Mexico (Mexican consulate), and the Austin Police headquarters -- before police shot and killed him. Sgt Adam Johnson, a 15-year veteran of the department, has been identified as the cop who shot the suspect.

This occurred early "black Friday" morning, November 28, 2014. The gunman also tried to set the Mexican consulate afire.

The unidentified North Austin man was suspected of shooting into buildings at around 2:30 a.m. local time, KVUE-TV reports.

The Austin American-Statesmanreported that the locations were the Mexican consulate, federal courthouse, and the Austin Police building.

Assistant Chief Raul Munguia told reporters that the suspected shooter, who was wearing some type of a vest, was killed near his vehicle, which may have contained an improvised explosive device. The police bomb squad was on the scene.

Officers pursued leads and were investigating a North Austin address where the suspect allegedly lived. They said they are checking the residence for other potential bombs.

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Update: By the end of the day, Friday, November 28, the shooter was identified as Larry Steven McQuilliams.

Larry, derived from Lawrence, means "laurel crowned," as in a victor of a battle or war.

Steven, derived the Greek Stéfanos, meaning "wreath, crown, honor, reward." In ancient Greece, a wreath of laurels denoted a winner of a contest, from which the crown, a symbol of rulers, was derived.

The root of the ancient Dalriadan-Scottish name McQuilliam is the personal name William. The Gaelic form of the surname is Mac Uilleim, meaning the son of William. The name is first found on the Isle of Harris, Scotland.

William is a name of old Germanic origin. William comes ultimately from the given name Wilhelm (cf. Old German Wilhelm > German Wilhelm and Old Norse Vilhjálmr). The Anglo-Saxon form should be Wilhelm as well (although the Anglo-Saxon chronicle refers to William the Conqueror as Willelm). That is a compound of two distinct elements : wil = "will or desire"; helm; Old English helm "helmet, protection"; > English helm "knight's large helmet."

Therefore, Larry Steven McQuilliams, literally is a triple name specifically linked to the covering of the head in laurels, a wreath, a crown, and the son of a helmeted one.

Videos posted onto McQuilliams' Facebook timeline show him practicing his skills with a Sai (shown at top), a weapon based on the Indian trisula, which is a trident.

McQuilliams, 49, was a Renaissance Fair enthusiast and martial artist, Matlack said. He took care of neighbors’ pets when they were away. Matlack said she saw him every couple of days while walking her dog. McQuilliams loved “Barking Springs,” the spillway end of Barton Springs where many owners take their dogs to roam off leash, and where many of Austin’s free spirits go to hang out. He would help clean up the hike-and-bike trail when heavy rains washed through it. He felt at home in drum circles….He was incarcerated in Texarkana, and his time behind bars — police have not released details of it, and online records are incomplete.

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Meanwhile, just after midnight, also on Friday, November 28, 2014, a stand-off in Newport News, Virginia, ended at the Fort Eustis base. An unidentified soldier locked his wife outside their base residence on Thanksgiving Day, at about 8 p.m., and barricaded himself inside, according to military officials. The man was not a threat, not violent, but refused to come out until the early morning. Rumors of an active shooter on the base were unfounded. It was unknown if he was armed.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Hot on the heels of my essay, "Gateway Arch to Hell: Ferguson in Trident Times," the structure is in the news again. I posted that selection on November 24, 2014, immediately after the non-indictment decision, regarding the shooting of Michael Brown, was made. As widely predicted, demonstrations, fires, and rioting occurred in 130 cities.

On November 26, it was announced the new issue of The New Yorker would have a cover illustration (above) by Bob Staake that shows the Gateway Arch as a broken landmark, white and black, with a missing top section. It symbolizes the racial tension in St. Louis due to the Ferguson situation.

Now comes word on November 27 (American Thanksgiving) - via an unsealed indictment - that a plot was sidetracked that would have caused a bomb to go off in exactly the above shown, missing section of the Gateway Arch.

Two St. Louis men ​plotted to bomb the Gateway Arch and murder the Ferguson police chief and prosecutor who handled Michael Brown’s case​. They had obtained one pipe bomb. They had plans to obtain two others.

Brandon Orlando Baldwin (also known as Brandon Muhammad - above) and Olajuwon Ali Davis (also known as Olajuwon Ali and Brother Ali) ​were allegedly ​planning to plant a bomb inside the observation deck of the ​iconic ​Arch, sources told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A November 21st report of their arms-related arrest mentioned their links to the New Black Panther Party. They allegedly acquired two Hi-Point .45 ACP pistols for someone else, at Cabela’s hunting gear store​ in Hazelwood, Missouri.

​After that arrest, the plot to bomb the Gateway Arch was revealed, but whether they were going to use the explosive to kill St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Police Chief Tom Jackson is unknown.​

Davis/Ali describes himself as a "Moorish American," and a member of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

The New Black Panther Party issued a statement calling the allegations regarding bombing and killing "totally unfounded" and were "baseless and have no merit."

The links to "Little Egypt" and the area are recalled, of course, with these "Moorish" threads and Brandon Muhammad's fashion choices.

Intriguing that one of the bomb plotter's first name is Brandon. It is Jim Brandon who notes, in his The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit (Dunlap, IL: Firebird Press, 1983), that the Gateway Arch location is across from the Cahokia Mounds complex. The Cahokia group includes the Monks Mound, the largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica. Its base circumference is larger than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.

"Which naturally leads me to ask who, then, built the more than one hundred conical, ridgetop, and platform mounds that once stood here, plus several dozens more in outlying areas and across the Mississippi precisely where the Gateway Arch now stands?" writes Brandon.

Thanks for elements of the non-bomb data from AWG and BG.<><><><><>

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

I wrote the following words long ago, and they were first published in 1983. They ring true today, in terms of the synchromystic milieu in which we find ourselves.

Cryptologic or coincidence?

Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical. and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition. Jim Brandon's The Rebirth of Pan discusses this thesis in detail. Clearly, however, a massive name game is being played out across Mysterious America, and the proof of such a hypothesis goes beyond mere chance.

In Wild Talents, Charles Fort thought about some of these same things when he wrote: "My liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in relations of things. I have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudorelations that are called coincidences. What if some of them should not be coincidences?"

Noting that the vanishing act of Ambrose Bierce was followed by the vanishing of Ambrose Small some six years later, Fort continued: "But what could the disappearance of one Ambrose, in Texas, have to do with the disappearance of another Ambrose, in Canada? There was in these questions an appearance of childishness that attracted my respectful attention."

Charles Fort, thus, engaged in the name game, and attempted to understand the quick explanation given for it, coincidence. "In the explanation of coincidence, " Fort emphasized in Wild Talents, "there is much of laziness, and helplessness, and response to an instinctive fear that a scientific dogma will be endangered. It is a tag, or a label: but of course every tag, or label, fits well enough at times."

So, in the midst of all the Fayettevilles, Wetzels, Decaturs and Devils, someone must feel comfortable in knowing they believe they are merely coincidences.

But ponder Fort: "There is a view by which it can be shown, or more or less demonstrated, that there never has been a coincidence. That is, in anything like a final sense. By a coincidence is meant a false appearance, or suggestion, of relations among circumstances. But anybody who accepts that there is an underlying oneness of all things, accepts that there are no utter absences of relations among circumstances."

And what of any one of our own name games? To look personally, closer at your name or the place you live, is instructive. For me, one who has examined deeply the pattern in names and things, I was struck by some insights pointed out to me, personally, by Jim Brandon concerning “Coleman.” Alfred Watkins...wrote in his The Old Straight Track, the “Coleman, who gave his name to all kinds of points and places on the tracks, was a head-man in making them, and probably worked from the Colehills, using beacon fires for making out the ley.”

In a similar vein, I. Shah's The Sufis demonstrates the origin of my name via Coalman, the charcoal burners, the Perceivers, the Carbonari, and their links with the occult.

Perhaps, then, the name game has played a special trick on me. I seem predisposed to try to scrutinize names of people and places for the purpose of perceiving the possible hidden meanings and patterns behind them. The lay of the land, and the sighters of the strange, then truly, hold many secrets as we hobnob about America. ~ from Mysterious America(Faber and Faber, 1983; Faber and Faber, 1989; Simon and Schuster, 2007).

Mysterious America:"An entertaining and open-minded book...A useful reference tool as well as a record of the unexplained."-- Library Journal

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Monday, November 24, 2014

Ferguson is a Scottish-Irish surname and given name. The surname is a patronymic form of the personal name Fergus. The name Fergus is derived from the Gaelic elements fear ("man") and gus ("vigor," "force," or "choice"). Thus the name "Ferguson" literally means the "son of a man of force/vigor" (the "male offspring of a strong powerful father").

In 2014, the word "Ferguson" now symbolizes deeper meanings. It may soon mean a time of hellish behaviors, across the USA. Yes, I am not the only one predicting that "all hell may break loose," as The Economist considered the coming days.

On Sunday night, November 23, 2014, protesters wrote TheHunger Games-inspired graffiti on a local St. Louis landmark, which read: "If we burn, you burn with us."

It was scrawled on an arch in the Shaw neighborhood of the Missouri city. The slogan is from Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1. The arch that was vandalized is known as the Flora Place Gates and was built in 1897, helping sparking the development of Shaw, Missouri. Nearly a century later the neighbourhood was identified as a historic district because of its period architecture. Source.

FTP means "F*ck The Pigs."

Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black adolescent, was shot (reportedly six times) and killed on Saturday, August 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The St. Louis County grand jury made a decision and announced on Monday, November 24, 2014, that there is no indictment of Officer Wilson. The predicted outcome of this decision is nationwide demonstrations, with some rioting and civil unrest.

Ferguson had its start in 1855 when William B. Ferguson deeded 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land to the Wabash Railroad in exchange for a new depot and naming rights. The settlement that sprang up around the depot was called Ferguson Station. Ferguson was the first outside station connected to St. Louis, Missouri. Ferguson was incorporated as a city in 1894.

Others have seen synchromystic links to Ferguson.

Ferguson, Missouri (northeast St. Louis), sits precisely midway between Cairo, Illinois ("Little Egypt") and Hannibal, Missouri (the Hannibal name is related to Baal as well as the archetypal enemy of ancient Rome). Ferguson is also precisely in the middle of two alignments of Route 66, the I-270 frontage road to the north, and I-70 to the south. Source.

Little Egypt is an area steeped in mysticism.

Little Egypt is a regional name for southern Illinois. The most populated city is Belleville.

The nickname "Egypt" may have arisen in the 1830s, when poor harvests in the north of the state drove people to Southern Illinois to buy grain. Others say it was because the land of the great Mississippi and Ohio River valleys were like that of Egypt's Nile delta. The nickname may date back to 1818, when a huge tract of land was purchased at the confluence of the rivers and its developers named it Cairo. Today, the town of Cairo still stands on the peninsula where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi. Other settlements in the area were also given names with Egyptian, Greek or Middle Eastern origins: The Southern Illinois University Salukis sports teams and towns such as Metropolis, Thebes, Dongola, Palestine, Lebanon, New Athens, Sparta, and Karnak show the influence of classical culture....Egyptian names were concentrated in towns of Little Egypt but also appeared in towns further south. For instance, about 100 miles (200 km) south of Cairo, along the Mississippi, lies Memphis, Tennessee, named after the Egyptian city on the Nile. Source.

The skyward symbol of the Ferguson area is the Gateway Arch.

St. Louis Gateway Arch was covertly blown up in the science fiction film, Sucker Punch (2011), and it served overtly as a 2046 landmark in Syfy's Defiance (2013-2014).

Eero Saarinen working with a model of the arch in 1957.

St. Louis's Gateway Arch is very relevant too (via Ferguson, of course). Note that the City is known as "Gateway to the West." So, you know where that goes. The west = Osiris = Underworld portal = Gate of Hell. ~ Source.

Eero Saarinen's futuristic designs are significant and iconic. His TWA JFK Flight Center opened in 1962 and has been somewhat preserved in the redesigned JetBlue JFK T5, which retains parts of the Saarinen terminal (head house).

In discussing the significance of all the tridents being seen in 2014, via various news stories, this is intriguing:

I'd [Goro would] say, [this] is at the core of what the trident motif alludes to...The opening of the Gates of Hell. Source.

Some ideas about the Gateway Arch are far from the mainstream, of course. Take, for example, the Remove The Veil insight that...

The St Louis Arch is a Solar Oriented Masonic Death Memorial for a land (West = Amurru = America) destined to become “Wilderness,” i.e. Desert. The Fleur de Lys (Louisiana Purchase) symbolizes Father, Mother Son, the Occult “Trinity.” Source.

The Gateway Arch is said to be an inverted catenary, because its curve arches up instead of hangs down. As Robert Hooke (essentially) wrote in 1675 about the relationship between a perfect arch and a hanging chain: “As hangs the chain, so stands the arch.”
Perhaps coincidentally, from a purely symbolic perspective, in Freemasonry one finds the astrologically-based Royal Arch of Heaven. Alfred E. Waite, in his New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, specifically mentions the Catenarian Arch:
“There are two points from which this form of arch can be approached; the first is that of architecture, and it is proverbial in this respect that there is no curve in Masonry which approaches the catenary in strength; as regards the second, it is summarized in the simple statement that in its due and proper arrangement every Royal Arch Chapter approaches as nearly as possible the form of a catenarian arch. Of all that arises herefrom and belongs hereto it is not possible to speak: the motto is: Come and See.” Source.

The Freemasonic Royal Arch.

Update: By pure coincidence, after I posted this, Theo Paijmans tweeted the above image, showing that this royal arch was used on the "Masonic Apron presented to Gen. Washington by Madame LaFayette."

This brings forth another view:

The trident - at once a symbol of disintegrating fire/lightning and of gnashing teeth - is a liminal (threshold) symbol. To put it differently, the teeth are the gatekeepers of the mouth - one of the sacred "nine bodily gates" in Tantric sex-magic. The teeth/mouth are a gateway into the digestive system, which facilitates the breakdown of matter for use by the body. Source.

Thoughts have been shared about how close to home this is:

One synchronicity, though: the trident is the symbol of the university where I [Kenn Thomas] work. I live near the university, home and office near the rioting, although not quite in Ferguson. Source.

On Saturday, June 28, 2008, at Six Flags Over Georgia, 17-year-old Asia Leeshawn Ferguson of Springfield, South Carolina, scaled two six-foot fences and passed through restricted areas posted as dangerous to visitors. Ferguson jumped the fences and was then decapitated by the Batman roller coaster. Source.

Where is all of this leading?

Look closer to home at Ferguson, Missouri. We all better start paying attention. We all better get hip to the seriousness of these matters. Source.

Is it a bit of a sad irony that the line from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 hit Ohio – “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’ …” could apply today, as Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon deploys National Guard troops into the fractured St. Louis suburb of Ferguson? Source.

Most murders in Portland, Maine, are the result of domestic violence, but less than 10% remain "unsolved."

A new murder in Portland is a surprise. Where it happened is, as well. The Brighton Avenue-Massachusetts Avenue-Congress Street area is a mix of apartment houses at each end, with quiet single-family homes, lined with maple trees and comfortable little front and back yards, in between. This is near the University of Southern Maine, and where students, immigrants, professors, and ex-professors live. The site of these murders is where I live, and a shock for the neighborhood. (It was just a "coincidence" that I wrote about redrum/murder earlier on the same day.)

But are we discovering, at least, for murder mysteries of 2011 and 2014, this one area is a focus?

Here's what we know about the murder last night, Friday, November 21, 2014.

Portland police say a man was shot and killed by another man who fled the scene of the apparent homicide in an apartment on Brighton Avenue on Friday night.
Police found one man dead when they were called to an apartment at 214 Brighton Ave. shortly after 9 p.m. to respond to a report that shots had been fired.
The man believed to have committed the killing fled, but police didn’t know whether he got in a vehicle or ran. They did say that the suspected shooter was no longer thought to be in the area late Friday night, and that no one had been taken into custody.
Police did not release the identity of the victim.
Brighton Avenue was closed between Douglass Street and Massachusetts Avenue while police investigated the killing. They expected the street to remain closed for some time.
The shooting occurred in the Princeton Village Apartments, a large complex next to the train tracks that run through the neighborhood. (Read more.)

The time was also given in another report:

Portland police are investigating a homicide at 214 Brighton Ave. Officers arrived an apartment around 9:05 p.m. Friday and found one man dead. (Read more.)

Saturday evening, the victim was identified as Richard Lobor, 23, of Portland. Source.

Lobor was a guest in an apartment at 214 Brighton Avenue, where the fatal shooting took place. Source.

On Facebook, "Rich Lobor" (pictured) is profiled:

Works at Seeds of Peace

Studied at Southern Maine Community College

Past: Portland High School

Lives in Juba, South Sudan

From Cairo, Egypt

==============================================================

In 2011, an unsolved murder happened at the opposite end of Massachusetts Avenue.

Portland police investigate a fatal shooting that happened early Monday, August 1, 2011, outside 4-6 Massachusetts Ave. Police were called to the Mobil gas station at 1196 Congress St., in the background, and found a 41-year-old man lying on the sidewalk in front of the station. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald photographer

Portland police search an alley outside 4-6 Massachussetts Ave., where a man apparently was shot early Monday. The shooting is the first homicide of this year in Portland. John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald photographer

The victim, identified as Allen MacLean, apparently was shot at 4:30 am behind the three-story apartment building at 4-6 Massachusetts Ave., and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of a Mobil gas station and convenience store at 1196 Congress St.

The case is still listed as unsolved, as the Portland Police department's only "cold case homicide" for 2011. (See here.)

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About Me

Investigator of human and animal mysteries since 1960. Swamp Thing character "Coleman Wadsworth" in #4:7 and more in #4:8, is a tribute.
Author of over 35 books, including The Unidentified (1975), Mysterious America (1983/2007), Suicide Clusters (1987), Cryptozoology A to Z (1999), Bigfoot! (2003), The Copycat Effect (2004), and field guides.
Educated in anthropology-zoology at SIU-Carbondale, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work. Began doctoral work in anthropology (Brandeis University) and family violence (UNH). Taught at NE universities (1980 to 2003), while concurrently a senior researcher at the Muskie School (1983 to 1996), before retiring to write, lecture, consult, & open museum. Popular documentary course was taught for 23 semesters; appeared on C2C, The Larry King Show, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, In Search Of, and other tv programs.
Loren Coleman is a dedicated father (Caleb, Malcolm, Des), cryptozoologist, media consultant, and baseball fan.